1. How many pins does the P1 connector have that uses the ATX Version 2.2 standard?

9.6” x 9.6”

1. Which form factor is a smaller version of the MicroATX form factor?

FlexATX

1. How many pins does the main power connector on a BTX motherboard have?

1. Which type of case form factor is best for keeping a system cool?

BTX

1. Which type of computer case is most popular for desktop systems?

Mid-tower case

1. What is the normal voltage of house electricity in the U.S.?

110 volts to 120 volts

1. Hot wires in home wiring are normally colored ____ and ground wires in computers are normally colored _____.

Black, black

1. What is the difference between a transformer and a rectifier? Which are found in a PC power supply?

A rectifier is a device that converts alternating current to direct current. A transformer is a device that changes the ratio of current to voltage. A computer power supply functions as both.

1. What are the five voltages that can be produced by an ATX or BTX power supply? Which voltage is seldom used?

A rectifier is a device that converts alternating current to direct current. A transformer is a device that changes the ratio of current to voltage. A computer power supply functions as both.

1. What are the five voltages that can be produced by an ATX or BTX power supply? Which voltage is seldom used?

+5, -5, +12, -12, and +3.3, -5

1. What device uses the 12V 6-pin power connector? 

Video card that uses the PCI Express, Version 1 standard. 

1. What device uses the 12V 8-pin power connector?

Video card that uses the PCI Express, Version 2 standard

1. What is the purpose of the 4-pin auxiliary connector on a motherboard?

To provide extra voltage for a processor

1. What is the purpose of the 4-pin Molex connector?

Powers IDE drives

1. How do you determine the wattage capacity needed by a power supply?

Add up all wattage requirements for all devices that will use the power supply and then add an additional 30%

1. Why is a power supply dangerous even after the power is disconnected?

Capacitors inside a PC power supply create the even flow of current needed by the PC. Capacitors maintain their charge long after current is no longer present, which is why the inside of a power supply can be dangerous even when power is disconnected.

1. Which tool of a PC support technician is the most important tool to protect the system against ESD?

Ground bracelet 

Esd 

1. What is a simple way to detect EMI?

On an inexpensive AM radio, turn the tuning dial away from a station into a low-frequency range. With the radio on, you can hear the static produced by EMI. Try putting the radio next to several electronic devices to detect the EMI they emit.

1. What is an unintended, high-current, closed connection between two points in a circuit called?

A short, or short circuit

1. What device protects a system against lighting strikes but does not protect against sags and brownouts?

Surge protector

1. What device protects a system against blackouts?

UPS

1. What two measurements are used to rate the capacity of a UPS?

VA and watts

joule

1. Why is it important to have an indicate light on a surge suppressor?

So you can tell when the surge suppressor is no longer providing protection against a power surge.

1. Why is it important to have an indicate light on a surge suppressor?

So you can tell when the surge suppressor is no longer providing protection against a power surge.

1. What are the two main types of uninterruptible power supplies?

Standby and inline

1. How does a smart UPS differ from one that is not smart?

A smart UPS can be controlled by software from a computer to allow additional functionality.

1. What is the purpose of a POST diagnostic card?

To report errors at POST

1. When taking a computer apart, why is it important to not stack boards on top of each other?

You could accidentally dislodge a chip.

1. When assembling a system, which do you install first, the drives or the motherboard?

Drives

1. List four computer symptoms that indicate a faulty power supply.

Possible answers:

• The PC sometimes halts during booting. After several tries, it boots successfully.

• Error codes or beep codes occur during booting, but the errors come and go.

• The computer stops or hangs for no reason. Sometimes it might even reboot itself.

• Memory errors appear intermittently.

• Data is written incorrectly to the hard drive.

• The keyboard stops working at odd times.

• The motherboard fails or is damaged.

• The power supply overheats and becomes hot to the touch.

1. What are five main categories of form factors used for motherboards? 

ATX, MicroATX, FlexATX, BTX, and NLX

1. How many pins does the Intel Socket B have? What is another name for this socket?

1366 pins, LGA1366

1. How many pins does the AMD socket AM2 have?

940 pins

1. Which is a better performing Intel chipset, the X58 or the P45?

P45

1. Which part of the chipset connects directly to the processor, the North Bridge or the South Bridge?

The North Bridge

1. What are the names of the two technologies used to install multiple video cards in the same system?

SLI and CrossFire

1. What are the two different voltages that a PCI slot can provide?

5 volts and 3.3 volts

1. How does the throughput of PCI Express Version 1.1 compare to PCIe Version 1? How does PCIe Version 2 compare to Version 1?

PCIe Version 1.1 and PCIe Version 1 have the same throughput. PCIe Version 2 doubles the throughput of PCIe Version 1.

1. What is the maximum wattage that a PCIe Version 2.0 expansion card can draw?

300 watts

1. What new type of power connector on the motherboard was introduced with PCIe Version 1.0? How much power does this connector provide?

6-pin PCIe connector, 75 watts

1. What new type of power connector was introduced with PCIe Version 2.0? How much power does this connector provide?

8-pin PCIe connector, 300 watts

1. If you are installing an expansion card into a case that does not have enough clearance above the motherboard for the card, what device can you use to solve the problem?

A riser card

To hold a video card

PCI Express x16 is about 4 times faster than the latest AGP bus

1. What is the purpose of a CNR slot?

1. What is the likely color of the PS/2 mouse port on the rear of a computer?

Green

1. What is one reason to flash BIOS? 

To add new features made available by the BIOS manufacturer or to attempt to solve problems with the motherboard

1. What is the easiest way to obtain the latest software to upgrade BIOS? 

Go to the Web site of the BIOS or motherboard manufacturer.

1. What can you do if the power-on password and the supervisor password to a system have been forgotten?

Use the jumpers on the motherboard to reset the passwords

Where is the boot priority order for devices kept?

In CMOS RAM

1. What is the difference between a hard boot and a soft boot?

A hard boot begins with powering up the system and BIOS performs POST and then loads the OS. A soft boot begins later in the process; power is not affected and BIOS does not perform POST.

1. How is CMOS RAM powered when the system is unplugged?

By a coin-cell battery

1. Describe how you can access the BIOS setup program. 

By pressing certain keys (depending on the specific computer and BIOS program) during the boot process

1. If a USB port on the motherboard is failing, what is one task you can do that might fix the problem?

Go to the motherboard manufacturer web site, download and install updated drivers.

1. What might the purpose be for a SATA-style power connector on a motherboard?

To provide auxiliary power to PCIe cards

1. Who are the two major manufacturers of processors?

Intel, AMD

1. What are the four system bus frequencies used by current Intel processors?

1600, 1333, 1066, and 800 MHz

1. What three sockets are currently used for Intel processors in motherboards for desktop systems?

LGA1366, LGA771, LGA775, and 478 sockets

1. What is the name of the memory cache that is on the same die as the processor?

L1 cache

1. What is the name of the memory cache that is closest to the processor die but is not housed on the die?

L2 cache

1. What is the name of the Intel technology that allows a processor to handle multiple threads at the same time?

Hyper-Threading

1. How many threads can a quad-core processor handle at once?

1. What is the name of the memory cache that is shared by cores in a multi-core processor?

L3 cache

1. Which is faster, SRAM or DRAM? Why?

SRAM, because it does not need to be refreshed

1. Which is the first computing technology used by a processor to support repetitive looping whereby a processor receives an instruction and then applies it to a stream of data that follows?

MMX (Multimedia Extensions)

1. Which computing technology (SSE1, SSE2, SSE3, or SSE4) better supports data mining applications?

SSE4

1. Which Intel processor family is better performing, the Pentium family or the Core family?

The Core family of processors

1. Which AMD processor (Turion or Phenom) is designed for laptops?

Turion

1. What are the two major components of a processor cooler assembly?

Heat sink and fan

1. How many pins does the CPU fan header on a motherboard have?

4 pins

1. If the power connector from the CPU fan has only three pins, it can still connect to the 4-pin header, but what functionality is lost?

Adjustable speed control of the fan to lessen the noise in the system

1. What is the major disadvantage of using a peltier heat sink?

The drastic difference in temperature between the peltier’s top surface and the bottom surface can cause condensation inside the case when the PC is turned off.

1. Name three tools that can be used to rid the inside of the case from dust.

Can of compressed air, blower, antistatic vacuum

1. Why is it important to insert a processor straight down into a socket rather than sliding the processor in from the side or allowing it to tilt into the socket?

So the pins will not be bent.

1. List three possible causes of a system that hangs or freezes at odd times.

• Overheating

• Processor is faulty

• Windows is corrupted

• Motherboard is faulty

• Power supply is failing

• Memory is failing

• Hard drive errors

1. Place the following networking technologies in the order of their highest speed, from slowest to fastest: Fiber optic, dial-up networking, cable modem, Fast Ethernet

Dial-up networking, cable modem, fiber-optic, Fast Ethernet

1. What is the difference between ADSL and SDSL?

ADSL uses one upload speed from the consumer to an ISP and a faster download speed. SDSL uses equal bandwidths in both directions.

1. Among satellite, cable modem, and DSL, which technology experiences more latency?

Satellite

1. When using DSL to connect to the Internet, the data transmission shares the cabling with what other technology?

Regular telephone

1. When using a cable modem to connect to the Internet, the data transmission shares the cabling with what other technology?

Television

1. Which version of 802.11 technologies can use two antennae at both the access point and the network adapter?

802.11n

1. Which wireless encryption standard is stronger, WEP or WPA?

WPA

1. What is the name of the port used by an Ethernet cable? What is the name of the port used by a dial-up modem?

RJ-45, RJ-11

1. If you want to upgrade your 100BaseT Ethernet network so that it will run about 10 times the current speed, what technology would you use?

Gigabit Ethernet

1. What is the maximum length of a cable on a 100BaseT network?

100 meters or 328 feet

1. What does the 100 in the name 100BaseT indicate?

The transmission speed of the network which is 100 Mbps.

1. Which type of networking cable is more reliable, STP or UTP?

STP is more reliable

1. Which is more expensive, UTP CAT5e cabling or STP CAT5e cabling?

STP CAT5e is more expensive because it is shielded

1. How can you tell the difference between a patch cable and a crossover cable by examining the cable?

Look for the label imprinted on the cable

1. What type of server serves up IP addresses to computers on a network?

DHCP server

1. What type of protocol is used to present a public IP address to computers outside the LAN to handle requests to use the Internet from computers inside the LAN?

NAT

1. How many bits are in an IPv4 IP address?

32 bits

1. What port does the SMTP protocol use by default?

Port 25

1. Which protocol does a Web server use when transmissions are encrypted for security?

HTTPS

1. What type of server resolves fully qualified domain names to IP addresses?

DNS server

1. What is the maximum length of a NetBIOS name?

15 characters

1. What is the name of the file that keeps associations between computer names and IP addresses on the local computer?

Hosts file

1. What protocol is replacing the POP protocol used to receive email?

IMAP

1. Approximately how many IP addresses are available for a single Class A IP license? Class B? Class C?

16 million, 65,000, and 254

1. What are IP addresses called that begin with 10, 172.16 or 192.168?

Private IP addresses

1. In what class is the IP address 185.75.255.10?

Class B

1. In what class is the IP address 193.200.30.5?

Class C

1. Describe the difference between public and private IP addresses. If a network is using private IP addresses, how can the computers on that network access the Internet?

Public IP addresses are licensed and authorized to use the Internet. Private IP addresses are not authorized or licensed to use the Internet. A computer with a private IP address uses a proxy server to access the Internet.

1. Why is it unlikely that you will find the IP address 192.168.250.10 on the Internet?

IP addresses that begin with 192.168 are private IP addresses.

1. If no DHCP server is available on a network, what type of configuration must computers on the network use for assignments of IP addresses?

Static IP addressing

1. If a computer is found to have an IP address of 169.254.1.1, what can you assume about how it received that IP address?

The IP address was automatically assigned by Windows when it failed to lease an address from the DHCP server. The computer received an APIPA IP address.

1. What command can be used to cause Windows to release its IP address?

Ipconfig /release

1. What is the purpose of the command, ping 127.0.0.1?

To verify that TCP/IP is configured correctly.